Angela Eagle, who quit her role as shadow business secretary, was close to tears on BBC Radio 4 this afternoon as she explained her decision to step down.

Jeremy Corbyn's grip on the Labour leadership looks increasingly weak as Ma Eagle became the most senior member of his shadow cabinet to quit.

Ms Eagle, the shadow first secretary of state who deputises for Mr Corbyn at Prime Minister's Questions, said "we need a leader who can unite rather than divide "the Labour Party.

"It's just not working," she said.

"I’ve had to think very carefully about it, it’s been an agonising decision but I think it’s the first duty of every Labour leader to communicate with the electorate and during the EU referendum with just days to go to the vote, when we had a united party position on that EU referendum it emerged that half of our voters didn’t know what that was.

"I think we are going to be very possibly facing a general election in the next four months and we can’t have our party led by someone who can’t get that kind of simple message across."

Ms Eagle refused to rule herself out of running against Jeremy Corbyn in a leadership contest, but says today is about the Labour leader's future.